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Re: RELEASE BLOCKER: Linux doesn't follow x86/x86-64 ABI wrt direction flag
- From: NightStrike <nightstrike at gmail dot com>
- To: "Olivier Galibert" <galibert at pobox dot com>, "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa at zytor dot com>, "Chris Lattner" <clattner at apple dot com>, "Michael Matz" <matz at suse dot de>, "Richard Guenther" <richard dot guenther at gmail dot com>, "Joe Buck" <Joe dot Buck at synopsys dot com>, "Jan Hubicka" <hubicka at ucw dot cz>, "Aurelien Jarno" <aurelien at aurel32 dot net>, linux-kernel at vger dot kernel dot org, gcc at gcc dot gnu dot org
- Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2008 10:37:21 -0500
- Subject: Re: RELEASE BLOCKER: Linux doesn't follow x86/x86-64 ABI wrt direction flag
- References: <Pine.LNX.4.64.0803052158270.20583@wotan.suse.de> <84fc9c000803051332q2f2eedeej7d3c0509e698cabf@mail.gmail.com> <47CF11D6.7070901@zytor.com> <738B72DB-A1D6-43F8-813A-E49688D05771@apple.com> <Pine.LNX.4.64.0803052258530.20583@wotan.suse.de> <2F47E21A-9055-4EC3-99CF-B666BBC045C3@apple.com> <47CF3F09.4080606@zytor.com> <578FCA7D-D7A6-44F6-9310-4A97C13CDCBE@apple.com> <47CF44E7.3020106@zytor.com> <20080306135139.GA5236@dspnet.fr.eu.org>
On 3/6/08, Olivier Galibert <galibert@pobox.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 05, 2008 at 05:12:07PM -0800, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> > It's a kernel bug, and it needs to be fixed.
>
> I'm not convinced. It's been that way for 15 years, it's that way in
> the BSD kernels, at that point it's a feature. The bug is in the
> documentation, nowhere else. And in gcc for blindly trusting the
> documentation.
The issue should not be evaluated as: "It's always been that way,
therefore, it's right." Instead, it should be: "What's the right way
to do it?"
You don't just change documentation because no existing code meets the
requirement -- UNLESS -- the non-conforming code is actually the right
way to do things.